OTS provides bird and bat management services for the renewable energy sector, particularly for wind farm projects.

Wind farms can negatively impacts birds and bats, mainly through collisions with the turbine blades. This means specialist surveys, risk assessments, and mitigation strategies for birds and bats are required for EIA approval of wind farms in Australia and around the world.

OTS caters to these specialist needs throughout the planning and operational phases of wind farm projects, with comprehensive methodologies to maintain compliance with national and state survey standards and requirements.

Pre-operational Phase

During the planning phase, prior to construction, developers are required to assess the potential for impacts on birds and bats using the area. OTS provides the following services to identify and mitigate these potential impacts at wind farms:

• Preliminary bird and bat assessments

• Bird and bat utilisation surveys, and targeted threatened species surveys (establish baseline data)

• Risk assessment and collision risk modelling (identify at-risk species)

• Development of a comprehensive Bird and Bat Management Plan to avoid and mitigate bird and bat impacts during the operational life of the project

Operational Phase

As wind farms present a threat to birds and bats continuously during their operational phase, ongoing monitoring and adaptive management strategies are vital parts of the process. OTS provides the following services:

• Operational bird and bat utilisation surveys (detect changes in utilisation due to the project)

• Long-term collision monitoring (carcass searches)

• Development and implementation of adaptive management strategies